


Home Town Heroes

by devdev2017



Category: Original Work
Genre: Bullies, F/M, Mad Science, Major Character Injury, Superheroes, Villains
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-24
Updated: 2017-01-24
Packaged: 2018-09-19 15:28:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9447572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/devdev2017/pseuds/devdev2017
Summary: After a young genius’ experiment goes horribly wrong four very different teenagers discover they have been gifted, or in some situations cursed, with superpowers. While one pair have been found by a twisted scientist who guides them to be villains, the other two have taken on the mantel of hero.But when heroes and villains clash it is those behind the masks who suffer.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Over all I would like someone to tell me whether it is worth it to continue trying to get this story published or if I need to start from scratch.
> 
> Is this a good place to start the book? Should I have the story lead up to this point, keep it here, or skip strait to the hero stuff?
> 
> I'm dyslexic so are there any spelling or grammar errors that I need to address?

Everything felt numb. She couldn’t feel anything. She couldn’t see anything but the black and purple that surrounded her. She couldn’t remember anything either. Where was she? Who was she? How did she even know she was female? What happened to her? Why was it that the only things she could see were swirling black and purple energies? They surrounded her completely. Every once in a while the energy would touch a part of her, well what she was aware of as being her body. Where the energy touched there was immense pain before slowly the energy took the pain away. When the energy did this, feeling came back to her. What scared her though is that she could feel her very fibers moving. 

Other times the energy would swirl around her hands. Slowly it seemed to disappear into her skin. There was a reason it was drawn to her hands but she couldn’t remember what reason that might be. It seemed as if the black and purple energy was trying to help her. That was nice of it.

What was this energy? How did she get here?


	2. Shawn: Wake up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who did we meet in the first chapter? Are they hero or villain? Who is Shawn and how is he involved in all of this?

Darkness. That was the next thing Shawn saw, darkness. As his eyes adjusted he could see a wooden beam above him. It must have protected him from the other debris when it fell. Part of it had landed on some other debris so that the one end was propped up and didn’t crush him. 

“Where am I?” he asked himself out loud. Above him one of the beams was removed. Light and fresh air flooded into the space he was in.

“Hey, I found one!” a firefighter shouted. Shawn was aware of being dragged up, but wouldn't really remember it later. The next thing he knew he was sitting on the ground with a group of firefighters standing over him. Each of the men were in their uniforms and had soot on their faces, making it hard to distinguish between them.

“You alright son?” One firefighter asked. Shawn looked around at all the emergency vehicles with their flashing lights. There were remnants of a building, parts of walls, glass strewn across the ground, and metal twisted into odd shapes.

“What happened?” Shawn asked. The place looked like it had been hit by a tornado. The Firefighters had looked relieved before he spoke, now they tensed.

“There was an explosion. You are lucky to be alive,” another of spoke up. Shawn’s eyes grew wide, his memories flooding back to him. The lab, Rachel leaving, the argument with-

“Sandy, what happened to her?” he asked urgently, trying to sit up. He was quickly pushed back down onto the gurney. The Firefighters glanced nervously at each other

“We haven’t found anyone else yet,” one of them said solemnly. 

“Come on kid we need to get you to a hospital.”

“Look, we don’t even know if she-” A younger sounding firefighter started.

“It’s my fault the explosion happened in the first place!” Shawn blurted out. He hadn’t meant to say it. It was like he had to tell someone and his tongue just decided to act on its own, sending the words tumbling out of his mouth. The firefighters eyed each other nervously. Their first thought probably assumed that he was some kind of terrorist. They relaxed after casting a weary eye over him. Their stern frowns probably meant that they thought he was an arsonist. Better than terrorist, but still insulting.   

“Fine, the police will want to ask a few questions anyway,” The older one sighed. Shawn was carried to an ambulance where EMTs were waiting. They swarmed him as soon as he was brought over. They asked tuns of questions about pain and others to see if he was cognitive, like his birthday. Faintly over them he heard one of the firefighters talking to a detective.

“He says that it’s his fault the explosion happened,” he heard the firefighter say. In hindsight he should have picked a better way to put it. The press was going to have a field day with this. Not to mention what Dad would do when he found out. He could feel the detective eyeing him from behind the wall of EMTs. Once he had been deemed not in immediate danger they wrapped a blanket around him and stood off to the side.

“All right kid tell me what happened,” The detective he had seen talking to the firefighter said as he walked up.

“Well, I went to the chem lab to ah--” he paused, he couldn’t let Rachel get in trouble too, her mother would flip and never let them see each other, “go on a tour. This Dr. Craft guy was supposed to show me around. I wanted to get familiar with my dad’s company and their operations.” 

“Did something happen on the tour?” The detective asked, glancing up from where he was scribbling in a note pad.

“Actually he wasn’t in my father’s office so I went to check his lab. He wasn’t there either but another student was in the lab. Sandy Landry, she volunteers here or at least that is what she told me. She was working on an experiment I think. We don’t exactly get along and I started arguing with her, asking her why she was allowed in my dad’s labs. She told me to leave, but I didn’t. So we kept fighting. I took a step toward her and slipped on the wet floor. I knocked into her and she poured too much of one thing into another,” he explained, leaving out everything about his girlfriend. The detective stopped writing and looked at him.

“That’s how this happened? Why didn’t you two leave?” the detective asked.

“We did, well I did after she told me to set off the alarm. Sandy must have thought she could stop the explosion by adding, something called a neutralizing agent, so she didn’t follow me. When I was outside I realized that she had stayed. Dr. Craft explained what she might be trying to do, but when he said it was more dangerous to try to stop the explosion I went after her,” Shawn described.

“So she didn’t know this herself?” the detective asked.

“She probably didn’t think anyone else was in the building, she had just added it when I got back and the place was deserted. She wanted to stop it before someone got hurt.”

“Sounds like a brave girl, risking her neck like that. Stupid as hell, but brave,” The detective said.

“This is all my fault. I should have just left when she told me to,” he said dropping his face into his hands.

“It sounds like this was all just a terrible accident. There will be a full scale investigation and we will have to talk to your father to see what he wants to do. Hopefully you won’t be facing any criminal charges,” The detective said as he put his note book back in his pocket and walked away.

“Thanks,” Shawn said sourly as the man left. As if that was what he was thinking about this entire time, instead of the fact that Sandy was still missing. He glanced around and saw the Landrys not far off sitting at a second ambulance. A police officer was holding them back. A shout went up from where a group of firefighters were working. Their movements became faster. Another firefighter ran up to the Landrys, not far from Shawn.

“We think we found her,” he told them, his voice just loud enough for Shawn to hear. Ms. Martin started crying, while Sandy’s uncle held her. Shawn quickly looked back towards the group of firefighters. They had started dragging Sandy out. He could see one of the firefighters trying to wake her before shaking his head. Shawn quickly realized that she was unconscious. It wasn’t surprising, he had been unconscious right before the firefighters had found him. Maybe it would just take her a little longer to wake up. He saw the paramedics rushing over and heard Ms. Martin give out a loud sob.

“That’s her, that’s our Sandy,” Sandy’s Uncle called out. Shawn watched as they put Sandy in the ambulance. He continued to watch as it pealed away, lights flashing a sirens blaring. Shawn began to get a sinking feeling in his stomach. The same feeling that he had gotten when Mom had been rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. Both had been unconscious and though they might not have looked like each other the situation brought back many dreaded memories. As he began to remember his mom’s rapid decline of health the sinking feeling in his stomach grew worse.   



	3. Dr. Craft: Mad Scientist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet Dr. Maddison Craft or, as the jerks in school us to call him, Mad Craft. What is his involvement with the explosion?

“I can’t believe you would do this to me Richard! After all these years-”

“You-you are lucky that all you are being charged with is reckless endangerment,” Richard said threw gritted teeth.

“I’m not the one who caused the accident! That was your son’s fault. He admitted so himself! Yet you blame me?” Dr. Maddison Craft couldn’t believe this. He knew that Richard was protective of Shawn since Clair’s death, but Dr. Craft never believed he would go this far.

“What happened between the kids was an accident. Shawn slipped on something that was spilled on the floor and knocked into Sandy. What you did on the other hand was reckless! You left a volunteer student alone with an experiment! You probably could have prevented the accident all together if you had just been there,” Richard explained. Dr. Craft opened and closed his mouth. He couldn’t find the words to say. It was true he had left Sandra. If he had only been there...

“How many times have you left Sandy alone to run the experiments?” His friend asked.

“...” Dr. Craft muttered.

“How many times!” Richard asked raising his voice.

“Just this once!” The doctor yelled jumping up from his seat. He was red faced, his chest was heaving, and tears streaked down his cheeks. Richard took a step towards him, he had seen the gesture before whenever the ex-football player wanted to comfort him. Dr. Craft noticed that Richard held himself back for the first time since they had known each other. There must have been more questions to be answered. 

“Why? If you have been so diligent before, why did you leave her alone this time?” When the question left Richard’s mouth Dr. Craft slumped back into his chair. He rubbed his temples. There was no use lying, Richard could always tell.

“I was performing another experiment,” he confessed.

“You were running an experiment somewhere else? What was so important that you-”

“Sandra’s experiment, I was running a modified version of her experiment,” he interrupted Richard’s rant. Dr. Craft knew it would all come out eventually. He might as well get it over with now.

“What?”

“Over the past week I have been testing it. It works, it really works Richard. At least on the small scale, like the one Sandy was running in the lab. I was running a full scale version in the basement,” he explained

“You, you stole Sandy’s work. Why?” Richard asked. The confusion was clear on his face. Dr. Craft felt his stomach knot with guilt.

“No, I-Sort of, I used positive Epsilon Particles that way I could publish it without affecting Sandy’s chances of getting published. And the research we were doing could only benefit each other,” Dr. Craft tried to explain. Even to his own ears it sounded like he was making excuses.

“I asked why,” Richard said sternly. Dr. Craft remembered that voice from high school. It was the one the former football player had used when he gave orders to his teammates.

“It has been years since I’ve been published. I could lose my job here, and you couldn’t keep that from happening. I saw the experiment and I thought, here is my last chance to do something with my life,” he admitted his real reasons. His selfish reasons. 

“Madison, you have done so much good with your life. Wouldn’t it have been enough to leave a legacy of knowledge and a love for science with Sandy? Instead of trying to take what isn’t yours?” Richard tried to reason with him. Dr. Craft curled his fists on the tops of his thighs. Sandy was the reason he hadn’t outright stolen the experiment. 

“Much of the research done today is so close they could be the same study. At least this was on the opposite end of the spectrum,” he said, giving a cold stare towards his friend. He saw Richard’s gaze reading his body language. The businessman’s shoulders slumped. Richard gave a sigh and slowly shook his head.

“Fine, for arguments sake lets go with that for the moment. What caused the explosion? You and I both know that Sandy’s experiment was stable enough not to cause something like this destruction, even with the other chemicals in the building. So what happened?” Richard questioned.

“I think when Sandra’s experiment became overly charged it...”

“It what Madison?” he pushed. Richard had used his first name, he hadn’t done that since Craft had become Dr. Craft. He was in trouble.

“It reacted with the one I was running in the basement. They were like two magnets coming together but they were so strong they took out everything in the way. And when they finally met it unleashed a lot of energy,” Dr. Craft explained. He had tried to make himself as clear as possible. Richard was smart in relative terms but not quite smart enough to really understand what had happened.

“You know research for experiments like this take months before you can take them to a larger scale. You did this within a week. How do you know it wasn’t yours that became overly charged?” Richard accused. 

“Because it had already stabilized. I was shutting it down to go back to Sandra. I wanted her to see it. Thought she might be willing to share the credit since I did the opposite end-” 

“Of the spectrum I got it,” Richard said curtly, his lip curling in destain.

“And the fact that I had progressed further within a week than she had in months,” Dr. Craft had to make Richard see the benefit to what he had done. He had advanced what could possibly be the most important discovery of the decade, no the millennium.

“So this all could have been avoided if you had just stayed with Sandy. If you had tried being a mentor to her instead of a leach,” Richard accused. His words were like a slap to Dr. Craft’s face. 

“It was your dam son who caused the explosion, not me!” he shouted, losing his temper. He might have been desperate but he was not a leach!

“Yeah, well if you hadn’t been stealing from Sandy and running her experiment in the basement you could have stopped it. You said it yourself on the small scale it works there wouldn’t have been an explosion if you hadn’t been running an unauthorized, and therefore illegal, experiment in the basement like a mad scientist!” Richard yelled.

“Oh sure just blame mad Dr. Craft! Instead of owning up to the fact that if your son had left when Sandra told him to then none of this would have happened. I might have been desperate enough to try to scrape by on technicalities when it came to plagiarism but your boy was the reason for the explosion!” Dr. Craft screamed. He couldn’t believe that Richard would call him a mad scientist. No one had called him that since he was in high school. Even back then it had been Richard who stood up against those people. Hearing those words come from his best-friend hurt the scientist more than he thought it could, even after all these years..

“Did you not just hear me? You did an illegal experiment Madison,” Richard’s voice dropped to a harsh whisper. It was such a dramatic change in tone that it caught Dr. Craft off guard.

“Wha-what?”

“You have been at this lab for years, you know better than most that you have to get approval for all experiments. That way we can make sure the proper safety precautions are in place, along with making sure everything is payed for and a hundred other reasons. But you didn’t get approval so that makes this unauthorized and therefor illegal,” Richard said, his voice returning to normal.

“You-you’re just saying that. You are joking right?” Dr. Craft asked in disbelief. 

“Madison, no I’m not. I don’t know if I am going to be able to protect you on this,” Richard said. He looked at Dr. Craft with sad, tired eyes. It hadn’t hit him until now just how old Richard looked. Had it happened slowly without his notice or had the explosion taken the life out of him?

“From what?” Dr. Craft asked.

“From loosing your credentials. Probably going to jail,” Richard continued to just look at him. 

“No, you, I, this was all an accident,” he could feel his clenched fists start to shake in fear.

“You plagiarized, preformed an unauthorized experiment, and recklessly endangered Sandy’s life. I can live with the other two, but that last one? I can’t, how about you?” Richard questioned, folding his arms across his chest. Dr. Craft sat stunned. Richard sighed and unfolded his arms.

“Look I’ll cover for you on the other two. You will however be charged with reckless endangerment, and if Sandy ever wakes up you will tell her what you did,” Richard said sternly. His tone left no room for argument. Craft clenched his jaw but nodded his head. The former football star was right, he was lucky to get off with only that.

“And you can consider yourself fired,” Richard said harshly before turning away. 

“Wh-NO!” he shouted, jumping up from his seat again.

Craft’s oldest friend walked away though, turning back only to say, “Sorry old friend.” 

Madison Craft continued to yell. He screamed until he was hoarse. He had lost everything he had ever cared about. All while trying to keep what he had worked so hard for.  



	4. Jimmy-Good bey future hello Pa

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet Jimmy, he's having a bad day.

James “Jimmy” Barrett trudged through the trailer park he had lived in all his life. The glow of porch lights and bug zappers lit his way over the red mud. Most of the double wides were worn by time. Their owners kept them and the grounds around them maintained. They all lined up like some suburban neighborhood.

None of those trailers were his destination. Instead he was heading towards an over grown corner of the lot. Whisky bottles hung from the dead tree behind a dilapidated trailer. One of the porch lights had a broken bulb. The other was missing completely. The only light came from the tv inside. 

The explosion had knocked Jimmy off of his feet. He had landed on his bad arm. The paramedics had checked him out. They gave him a clean bill of health and told him to go home. Instead he had stood back and waited. Sandy had still been in there. That was what Shawn had said before they had run back inside. The labs were big though and they had split up. They hadn’t been fast enough.

Jimmy sighed. He really wished that the police had believed him. From what Dr. Craft said it sounded like Sandy had survived. For that he was thankful. He should have warned her. Damn it he was such a coward! All he had to do was go to Dr. Craft or Sandy, but they wouldn’t have believed the lowly janitor. That wasn’t true, Sandy would have believed him. She would have surrendered to Dr. Craft’s authority though, she all but worshiped the ground he walked on. 

There was nothing he could do. Now all he wanted to do was collapse into bed before school started in a few hours. Maybe he could visit Sandy at the hospital. It’s not like he had to go to work. He would have to find another job tomorrow too. Sandy could probably help him with that. Maybe her uncle would let him work as a farm hand or something. Maybe.

He opened the door to his and Pa’s trailer. He regretted it immediately as the stench of booze reached his noes. As he moved into the trailer the smell became stronger. He was almost to his bed before he realized that Pa wasn’t supposed to get paid until Friday. He shouldn’t have any money for booze. Panic sized Jimmy. His alcoholic father couldn’t have found his money could he?

Trying to remain calm he walked over to the couch where he saw Pa lazing around, drinking a bottle of whisky he shouldn’t have money for. Jimmy’s fears were confirmed. The money he had saved up for collage. The money he had worked for years to save up. The money he had fucking buried behind the trailer! Pa had somehow found it.

“Finally decide to come home boy?” Pa snarled before taking a swig of whisky. Jimmy had learned hard that he couldn’t show anger or contempt. He didn’t really have to worry about Pa trying to hit him any more since he had grown two summers ago. The man still scared him though.

“Well?” Pa glared, expecting an answer.

“There was an accident at the lab,” he shrugged. 

“It’s all over t’ news. ’S why I’m drinkin’ the good stuff,” Pa slurred. Jimmy let go of the breath he had been holding. Maybe this was a bottle Pa had stashed somewhere. 

“When I saw wha’ happened I figured you were dead. I dug up that money you keep out back. I knew you weren’t putting all that money in the bank like I told you to. I was fine with it, janitors don’t make much,” Pa laughed. Jimmy clenched his jaw. He knew he was in trouble now. 

“But imagine my surprise when I dug up your little stash behind the trailer. Well, not really little stash,” Pa said, almost sounding humorous until his glare turned dark. Jimmy stayed where he was. It didn’t matter what he did, the money was gone. He would never be able to save up that much with his menial job in time for collage to start, even if he went back to street fighting in Garrison. 

“You hid all that money from me! Your health bills cost us a fortune and you didn’t even offer to help?” Pa raged, standing up. Jimmy stood up strait, trying to make himself look bigger, tougher. He had helped. What their meager health insurance wouldn’t cover he payed with part of the money he had saved for collage. Jimmy decided not to point it out. It would just make Pa angrier. 

“Well like the good father I am I decided to invest it for you,” Pa sneered. He wanted to ask why Pa would ‘invest’ the money for the son he thought had just died. Instead Jimmy ran a shaking hand threw his red hair. He knew what that meant. Pa had gambled, with his money. Were they in debt to a bookie again? 

“The market isn’t doing too well though so most of it fell threw. What was left of it I used to buy groceries for the week,” Pa said raising the bottle to his lips again. Jimmy glared at the man. He knew what Pa really meant. He had spent all of it on booze! 

Before he could do anything Jimmy forced himself to turn around and walk back out the door. He continued walking as Pa started yelling at him to come back. If he did though he feared he would kill the drunk. Then he would be just as bad as Pa. He feared that more than going to jail. James Barrow was not going to be anything like his father. 

He kept walking, blind to everything around him. His fists shook. He felt sweat run down his back. His skin felt like it was on fire. He slowly realized that he didn’t feel right. Around him the road shimmered like a heat mirage. Something had happened to him in that explosion. Something the paramedics hadn’t caught. He could have actually died in that explosion and his father wouldn’t have cared! His vision went red with rage.

The heat was mostly in his hands. It just kept getting hotter. So hot that he fell to his knees in pain. 

“Help! Somebody, please!” his screams filled the air. There was a flicker and fire appeared at the tips of his fingers. The fire licked at his fingers. It began climbing up his hands and continuing to his elbows. He tried rolling on the ground to smother the flames. Still the flames lived. He spun around. Moonlight glinted off the surface of a cattle pond. He stumbled towards it. The barbed wire hissed and snapped as he grew closer. He dived into the murky water. The flames went out. Relief flooded threw his drenched body. He raised his arms out of the water to inspect the damage the fire had done. He squinted in the moonlight. There were no red welts or melting skin. There was no rancid smell of burt flesh. 

“What’s happening to me?” Jimmy asked, still standing in the water. Was he going crazy? Looking back at the damaged fence told him that he wasn’t crazy. If he wasn’t crazy then…what was he?


End file.
